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Forbes’ does what they do best: count other people’s money. And when all the number-crunching was done, the title of highest paid musician for 2012 went to none other than Dr. Dre, who ironically made the bulk of his bread outside of the recording booth, courtesy of, you guessed it, his line of Beats headphones, earphones and accessories.

“Hip-hop superproducer Dr. Dre leads the pack this year with $110 million, thanks largely to his Beats headphone line. He collected $100 million pretax when handset maker HTC paid $300 million for a 51% stake in the company last year, at the beginning of our scoring period; he and his partners later bought back half of what they sold.

‘The brands are so aligned, Dre and Beats, it’s just who he is,’ says Kevin Liles, former president of Def Jam Recordings, who now manages acts ranging from Young Jeezy to Trey Songz. ‘If you look at the biggest earners, the guys have been doing it for 20 years … what’s happening now is people are really telling their truth.’”

What’s even more impressive is how far Dre was ahead of the second best earner on the list, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, who did well for himself ($88 million) but still trailed by nearly $30 million.